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In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day. Reagan wanted everyone to honor the fun and nutrious food that is enjoyed by a full 90% of the nation’s population. This is actually a real proclamation and the President called for all people of the USA to observe these events with “appropriate ceremonies and activities.” See the archived proclaimation on the American Presidency Project.

Well, I always try to fulfill my civic duties and do what is expected of me as a citizen of this nation. In keeping with this proclamation, I quickly got busy in the kitchen and whipped up my own Strawberry Ice Cream. It was so good, that it almost never made it to the freezer! The strawberries, which I cooked in sweet syrup and swished around in creamy yogurt, were simply sublime.

Now it’s time for YOU to do your part. Take this recipe and get started. It’s your duty.

A little over a week ago, Broetry author Brian McGackin visited Philadelphia to host his first Broetry Slam at National Mechanics, a favorite haunt of the folks here at Quirk.

Fledgling Broets and Broettes shared their broems in front of a lively audience at the Old City bar, while Jason Rekulak, Doogie Horner, Brian McGackin, and Anna Goldfarb (from the popular local dating blog Shmitten Kitten) judged away. We gave out some books, epic prizes to our two winners, and had an absolute blast. One of the winners, Christopher Wink, posted his broem in full on his personal website.

For those of you who missed the slam, Nathan Edmondson of Reel 9 Productions shot this fabulous video, full of highlights from the event. Enjoy!

Now, I know you're curious about those cupcakes in the video. Whipped by local baking genius (and guest Quirk blogger) Christine Eriksen, the recipe for those Broetry Cupcakes (which featured Jell-O shots inside), will be posted on here in the coming days.

Before the slam, Nathan shot a handful of Bro-Vignettes, featuring Brian reading select poems from Broetry at a couple locations around our office. That being said, a huge thank you goes out to A.K.A. Music, Brave New Worlds (especially Brian Johnson for his cameo appearance as a character in a video), and the Book Trader for letting us impose ourselves in your shops. I'll be posting the video clips here on blog over the next few weeks. For now, here's some photos.

Joseph D'Agnese, co-author of the Indiana Jones Handbook, 24: The Official CTU Operations Manual, Signing Their Lives Away and the upcoming Signing Their Rights Away (due out in September), recently decided to try an experiment in self-publishing, releasing a collection of his best non-fiction science journalism in an eBook.

Entitled The Scientist and the Sociopath, this best-of collection features a number of pieces featured previously in places like Discover, Wired and Seed. From profiling the guy who conceived the Big Bang Theory (but watched someone else get the Nobel Prize for it) to hanging out with scientists investigating flying snakes, there's plenty of true, undeniably quirky stories here

You can download a copy for the ridiculous price of 99 cents for the Kindle and Nook. Get it.

When Ransom Riggs isn’t busy penning awesome New York Times bestselling novels or collecting odd vintage photographs, he enjoys shooting short films. And I’m not just talking about his book trailers for Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. He’s done a number of them, all of which you can brose on his website, including this fantastic short film, The Accidental Sea.

He released this video back in May, and it has since racked up over half a million views on YouTube, some nice compliments from Roger Ebert, and has been featured on popular websites like Neatorama and mental_floss.

Check it out. It’s pretty incredible.

The Accidental Sea by Ransom Riggs [YouTube]

Edgar Allan Bro by Joseph Toschlog

Yesterday, Brian McGackin's debut book, Broetry, hit bookstores everywhere with its hilarious (and often heartwarming) portrayal of the modern bro. Time liked it, USA Today liked it, and we sure as hell do too.

And now, we want to hear YOUR broems.

Submit your best broem to our author, Brian McGackin, for a chance to become one of the monthly Broet Laureates of Quirkbooks.com. The winners will be selected by Brian, and will have their poems posted here on the blog, along with a brief bio and a photo.

We're encouraging those of you submitting broems to be creative. Shoot a video. Record a bro-cast (also known as a podcast). Write your broem on a bar napkin and take a picture of it. Tweet a bro-ku (haiku!) at Quirk or Brian. You can also just email it in to Brian ([email protected]). Have more than one broem? Enter as many times as you'd like.

Winners will be announced on the first of the month and will recieve a fancy certificate, an autographed copy of Broetry, a handful of bro appropriate Quirk titles (Old Man Drinks, Perfect Drink For Every Occasion, Art of the Video Game & more!) and some serious bragging rights. Two monthly runners up will recieve a signed copy.

Good luck, broets and broettes in training. And again, send your broems to Brian at [email protected].

Over July 4th weekend, while the rest of you were relaxing, BBQing, and reveling in firework-related festivities, beloved Quirk authors Joseph D'Agnese and Denise Kiernan were on the road, meeting up with fans of Signing Their Lives Away.

While hanging out in Philadelphia (Quirk's hometown!), Denise and Joe stopped by Christ Church and the Independence Visitor Center. I swung by the IVC to say hi and snap some pictures. I also met their historic reanctor pal, who was reading lines from Signing Their Lives Away as guests walked about the gift shop. I've included a little photo gallery and a short video clip below.

Enjoy, and make sure you catch these two when they're in your hometown.